In an election year tailor-made for a Democratic walk-over, Hillary Clinton is giving new meaning to "blind ambition" -- if she can't win the nomination, by Christ, no Barack-come-lately is going to win it, either. Aided by scorched-earth surrogates, Sen. Clinton is obsessed with gutting and dividing her party, in the process weakening Democrats' chances in November.
The ruthlessness is breathtaking.
Predictably, Sen. Obama's high-road strategy is crumbling under siege. And party chair Howard Dean is powerless (which isn't really news).
Gov. Bill Richardson, he of Pres. Bill Clinton's administration, endorsed Sen. Obama and was labeled "Judas" by Clinton attack-dog James Carville. When given a chance to soften his incendiary comment, Carville responded:
“I was quoted accurately and in context, and I was glad to give the quote and I was glad I gave it. I’m not apologizing, I’m not resigning, I’m not doing anything.”You gotta love it when a talking head doesn't backpedal.
Meantime, we're all trying to figure out how Sen. Clinton can repeatedly recount ducking snipers' bullets in Bosnia and then, when confronted by video showing that a Bosnian child handed her a bouquet of flowers and read her a poem, say this:
"I misspoke."When Sen. John McCain said that Iran is aiding Sunni militants in Iraq, he misspoke. (Iran is helping Shiite extremists.) When Sen. Obama said he'd discuss trade with "the president of Canada," he misspoke. (Canada has a prime minister, not a president.)
Sen. Clinton didn't misspeak. She exaggerated for political advantage -- period. No other explanation passes The Smell Test.
Any citizen with an ounce of independence now should question her assertions of "35 years of experience" -- along with the rest of the posing, pandering and posturing we hear from the world of politics.
With apologies to Jack Cafferty, it is indeed getting ugly out there.
